The Atlantic warned back in September 2016: the press should take Donald Trump seriously, but not literally. Since then we’ve all learned not to take the President word for word. But recent White House proposals have raised the question: does seriously still apply? At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump proposed the death penalty as a solution to the country’s drug problem. He also called issue-focused federal commissions all talk and no action — just before unveiling a commission on federal school safety the very next day. Then there was the measure not included in the President’s gun safety proposals: a raise in the minimum age to buy a gun — the same proposal Trump accused Republican Senators of being “afraid of the NRA” for failing to address.

Freelance journalist Joanna Weiss and Dante Ramos, editor of the Ideas section at The Boston Globe, joined Jim Braude to discuss the president’s back-and-forth on gun control, and more.